Glossary

Gift pyramids and campaigns

Gift pyramid

A table of how many gifts of each size it takes to reach a fundraising goal, largest gift first, with the prospects needed for each. Also called a gift range chart or gift table. See Gift pyramids.

Goal

The amount a gift pyramid has to reach. For a campaign, the campaign goal can differ from the sum of its priorities' goals; the difference is shown as unallocated.

Level

One row of a gift pyramid: a number of gifts at one amount, such as 4 gifts of $100,000. The last row, “many”, holds the many smaller gifts that make up the rest of the goal.

Lead gift

The single largest gift at the top of a gift pyramid — in the standard chart, 20% of the goal. Campaigns usually secure it first.

Prospect

Someone you could ask for a gift at a given level. In TruePyramids, a constituent whose giving history or capacity rating meets that level's prospect rule.

Prospect ratio (prospects per gift)

How many prospects you plan to ask for each gift you need — 3:1 means three prospects per gift. The standard chart uses 2 for the largest gifts and 3 to 4 below. See prospect ratios.

Prospects needed

Gifts at a level × the prospect ratio. 8 gifts at 3:1 need 24 prospects.

Prospects identified

How many constituents in your data already qualify as prospects for a level. See Prospects identified.

Gap

How many more prospects a level needs: prospects needed minus prospects identified, when that's more than zero.

Prospect rule

The test that decides who counts as a prospect for a level, such as “gave at least 10% of the level's gift over the last 5 years”. You can build your own. See prospect rules.

Capacity rating

An estimate of the largest gift a constituent could make, often from wealth screening or your research team. An optional column in your gift file. See capacity ratings.

Concentration rule

A check on how much of the goal comes from the largest gifts, such as 90% of the goal from the top 10% of gifts (“90/10”). See the concentration rule.

Scenario

A named version of a gift pyramid with its own goal, levels and ratios — “Current”, “Board ask” — shown as tabs and comparable side by side. See scenarios.

Campaign

A fundraising effort with several priorities, each with its own gift pyramid, rolled up to one goal. See Campaigns and priorities.

Priority

One part of a campaign, like a new building or an endowment, with its own gift pyramid. A donor is counted in only one priority.

Fund (designation)

What a gift was given to, from a fund or designation column in your file. A campaign priority can be seeded from the funds that match it. See funds.

Data coverage

How well your data can find prospects for a priority, shown as good or thin, with tips when it's thin. See coverage.

Ask

A solicitation: asking a constituent for a gift of a given amount on a given date, with an outcome of won, lost or open. An asks file lets TruePyramids suggest prospect ratios from your own history. See asks files.

Prospect plans

Prospect plan

The page behind a gift pyramid where prospects are assigned to gift officers, level by level, and tracked through moves stages. See Prospect plans.

Gift officer

A team member responsible for cultivating and asking a set of prospects.

Portfolio

The prospects assigned to one gift officer; portfolio capacity is how many they can manage well. See portfolio capacity.

Moves management (moves stages)

Tracking each prospect through stages toward a gift — by default Identified, Qualified, Cultivating, Solicited and Closed. See moves stages.

Donor and True Pyramids

Donor pyramid

Every donor placed in one tier for a period, with the donors and revenue in each tier, and movement compared with the period before. See Donor pyramids.

Tier

One band of a donor or True Pyramid, such as Mid-level ($1,000–$9,999) or Tier 2.

Period (fiscal year)

The span of time a donor pyramid places donors in — by default your latest full fiscal year — compared with the one before it.

Movement

How each donor changed between the two periods: moved up, stayed or moved down a tier; new (their first gift ever is in this period); reactivated (gave in the past, not in the period before, and again in this one); or lapsed (gave in the period before, not in this one). See movement.

True Pyramid

A pyramid whose tiers are learned from how your donors actually give, rather than set dollar bands. See True Pyramids.

Recency, frequency and monetary value

How recently a donor last gave, how often they give, and how much. The True Pyramid groups donors on these measures.

Dormant

A constituent who hasn't given in 18 months. Dormant constituents form the gray base tier of a True Pyramid.

Ready to move up

A True Pyramid's list, for each tier, of the donors who already look most like the tier above them. See ready to move up.

History and snapshots

Saved copies of a pyramid over time, so you can see its trend and compare two dates. A Plus feature. See Pyramid history.

Your data

Constituent

A person or organization in your CRM — a donor, prospect or household.

Constituent ID

Your CRM's ID for a constituent. It's how TruePyramids tells donors apart without ever storing their names, and how you look them up in your CRM.

Transaction ID

Your CRM's unique ID for one gift or payment. If two rows share one, the first is kept and the rest are skipped and listed.

Gift types

Every gift is matched to one of six types: One-time, Recurring, Pledge, Pledge payment, Planned and In-kind. See matching gift types.

Pledge and pledge payment

A pledge is a promise to give over time; pledge payments are the money as it arrives. Pyramids count money received, so an open pledge isn't counted as giving.

Planned gift

A future gift such as a bequest. Gift pyramids leave planned gifts out of prospect counts unless you turn that on. See planned gifts.

Upload

A gift or asks file you've imported, or a pull from your CRM. Pyramids are built from uploads.

Kept detail column

An extra, non-personal column from your file — such as fund, campaign or appeal — kept with each gift so you can use it in rules and see it in View records.

Personal information

Names, emails, phone numbers and addresses. Columns that look like these are removed as a file is read and never stored. See how personal information is removed.

View records

The side panel listing the constituents behind a tier, level or movement group, by constituent ID. See Viewing records.

CRM

Your donor database, such as Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Little Green Light, Neon CRM, Salesforce or Raiser's Edge NXT.

Pull, refresh and sync

A pull reads your gifts from a connected CRM. Refresh from CRM pulls again and rebuilds a pyramid on demand; scheduled sync (Plus) does it nightly or weekly. See Connecting your CRM.

Your workspace and plan

Organization

Your team's private workspace, with its own pyramids, uploads, team, plan and settings. You can belong to several. See Organizations.

Owner and member

The two roles in an organization. Members build and edit; the owner also manages the team and can delete anything. See roles.

Plus

The optional paid plan, per organization, that adds the AI assistant, scheduled CRM sync and pyramid history. See Plus plan and billing.

AI assistant

Answers questions about your pyramid and drafts levels, rules and summaries. It only ever sees aggregate numbers, never constituent IDs or rows. See AI assistant.

Questions

What's the difference between a gift pyramid and a donor pyramid?

A gift pyramid looks forward: the gifts you'll need to reach a goal. A donor pyramid looks back: where your donors are today and how they moved. See which pyramid answers which question.

A term I need isn't here.

Try the search on the help home, which looks through every page, or email support@truepyramids.com and we'll add it.